Runs on PeopleBlog
Shorter thinking, every week.
Practical posts between the playbooks: retros, team health, leadership and change. Each one links back to the dimension of the model it helps with.
All posts
Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, Shape Up or waterfall? Choosing how to structure the work
There's no best method, only the right fit for the work in front of you. A plain guide to choosing, and an honest word on the company that wants quarterly commitments and calls itself agile.
Never promise a promotion. Promise a CV-building opportunity.
Promotions depend on budgets, roles and people above you. What you control is the work. Promise the experience that makes someone promotable anywhere, and keep that promise.
Seven retro formats that get past "what went well"
Start, stop, continue has stopped working because everyone knows the answers before they arrive. Here are seven formats that get a team thinking again, and when to use each.
Why your retros stopped working, and how to fix them
When a retro goes quiet, it's rarely because there's nothing to say. It's because saying it hasn't changed anything. Five fixes that bring the honesty back.
Twelve small rituals that stop a team going stale
Teams rarely burn out from one big thing. They wear down from the same week on repeat. Twelve small, cheap ideas to bring some energy back, none of which need a budget.
How to enable change without a change programme
People don't resist change. They resist loss, and being done to. How to lead a change so people come with you, whether it's a new system, a new structure or a new way of working.
Change fatigue: when your team has had enough
One change is manageable. Five at once, with no end in sight, wears people out. How to spot change fatigue early and protect your team from it.
Running your first retro after something went wrong
A missed launch, an outage, an angry client. The retro afterwards can rebuild trust or quietly break it. How to run one that finds causes, not culprits.
The 15-minute team health check
You don't need an engagement survey to know how your team is doing. You need fifteen minutes, five honest questions and the nerve to act on the answers.
How to take over a team that's had a bad manager
The team you've inherited has learnt to keep its head down. They'll judge you on what you do, not what you say. How to earn back trust that someone else spent.
Leading a team you used to be part of
Yesterday you were one of them. Today you do their reviews. How to make the move to managing your friends without losing them, or your nerve.
Making hybrid teams feel like one team
When some people are in the room and some are on a screen, two teams form without anyone deciding it. How to keep one team, with habits you can start on Monday.